Israel Finkelshteyn (1909 – 1987) was a Soviet composer, pianist, musicologist, teacher.

He served as Dmitri Shostakovich's assistant and was a friend to Mieczysław Weinberg, while his own music was performed by the USSR's finest musicians. He never left the Soviet Union, and his music never reached audiences abroad during his life. Following half a century of neglect, it is enjoying a revival, now beyond Russia's borders.

His life follows the full arc of the Soviet Jewish intelligentsia, from the Pale of Settlement through revolution, war, evacuation, Stalinist purges, and the long shadow of the Iron Curtain - one life reflecting an entire century of upheavals. He was also my grandfather, which makes this history not distant or abstract, but something deeply woven into my own.   

                                                                                                       Polina Fradkina

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